Entertainment Essentials: August 11, 2017

Every Friday, NewsCult Entertainment Editor Jeffrey Malone recommends the entertainment essentials of the week – usually three, sometimes more, and usually at least one cinematic and at least one televisual, but it could be ANY combination.

1. Movie: Annabelle: Creation – The Conjuring series is the most consistently creepy horror franchise of the decade and possibly the century. The first Annabelle was not as well-received as the series proper, but I thought it was a solid little scare factory. Now, the prequel to the prequel/spinoff looks to offer an upgrade by adding some of the major players from two of the biggest horror hits of 2016: David F. Sandberg, the director behind the relentless Lights Out, and Lulu Wilson, who joined the Creepy Horror Kids Canon with her work in Ouija: Origin of Evil. (Our Michael McCarville wasn’t too enthused but did note the perennial pleasure of a horror crowd bursting out in spontaneously synchronized stress laughter.)

2. Movie: Good Time – For all you true blue cineastes out there, Good Time is likely already on your radar. But for you aspiring buffs who need some guidance for where to challenge your conventions, here is your latest opportunity. Robert Pattinson continues to make a case for himself as one of his generation’s finest actors with another collaboration with some of the most auteurist of auteurs. This time, it’s fraternal indie pair Joshua and Ben Safdie, and the product is a grainy tale of familial crime that will have your emotions shooting all over the place.

4. Music: Kesha, Rainbow – After all that Kesha is been through, I think we all would have been happy with her just releasing an album, period. But instead, she went ahead and came through the darkness with the most ambitious and sonically expansive release of her career. “Praying,” a stunning theme song for endurance and forgiveness, is a strong contender for best song of 2017. So let’s go ahead and give all of Rainbow a good streaming.

News Cult Entertainment Editor Jeffrey Malone is an entertainment writer/reporter/critic/thinkpiecer/listmaker. He is still working his way through every SNL episode that aired before he was born. He can be reached at [email protected]